HOURS AFTER performing the last rites of his mother in Gandhinagar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express \u2014 the first Vande Bharat Express in West Bengal and the seventh in the country \u2014 via video link on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing the event, Modi apologised for not being physically present. \u201cToday, I was supposed to be among you, but I could not come due to some personal reasons, for which I apologise to you and the people of West Bengal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Offering her condolences to Modi, Chief Minister\u00a0Mamata Banerjee\u00a0said: \u201cToday is a sad day. I pray to God to give you strength and bless you so that you can love your mother with your action and your activities. I convey my gratitude to you\u2026 you were supposed to come to West Bengal today, but because of the sad demise of your mother, you could not do so, but have reached us through your virtual programme. I request that the programme be cut short. Please take some rest, I don\u2019t know how to condole your mother\u2019s death, your mother is our mother. I remember my mother also.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his speech, the PM said: \u201cThe land from where the call of Vande Mataram originated saw the flagging off of Vande Bharat today\u201d. He pointed out the significance of the date, saying that Subhas Chandra Bose had hoisted the Tricolour in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on December 30, 1943, setting the wheels in motion for the independence of India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Modi also dedicated four railway projects to the nation \u2014 Boinchi-Shaktigarh 3rd Line (Rs 405 crore), Dankuni-Chandanpur 4th Line (Rs 565 crore), Nimtita-New Farakka Double Line (Rs 254 crore), Ambari Falakata-New Maynaguri-Gumanihat Doubling Project (over Rs 1,080 crore) \u2014 laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of the New Jalpaiguri railway station, and inaugurated the Joka-Taratala stretch of the Joka-Esplanade Metro Project (Purple Line).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn this 21st century, fast-paced development of Indian Railways is important for fast-paced development of India. We are working to modernise the Indian Railways. A national campaign is on to transform the Railways through modern trains being manufactured in India,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur efforts to give the Indian Railways a new identity are paying off. In the next eight years, we will see it reach new heights of modernisation. Railways is taking a youthful avatar, in line with young India,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Modi said that while 20,000-km rail lines were electrified in the first seven decades of Independence, over 32,000 km had been electrified since 2014. He said the Metro Rail system is an example of India\u2019s speed and scale today. \u201cMetro network, which was less than 250 km before 2014, had the highest share in Delhi-NCR. In the last seven-eight years, Metro has expanded to more than two dozen cities. Today, Metro is running on an approximately 800-km-long track in different cities. Work is going on for Metro routes of more than 1,000 km,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted that new airports, waterways, ports and roads are being constructed to ensure seamless connectivity for people. \u201cIndia is working towards boosting its jal shakti,\u201d he said, adding that work was underway to develop over 100 waterways projects. Highlighting the Ganga-Brahmaputra project between India and Bangladesh to establish waterway links, he said a cruise will set sail on a 3,200-km-long journey from Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) to Dibrugarh (Assam) via Bangladesh on January 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The PM said more than 25 sewage projects have been approved in West Bengal under the Namami Gange Scheme, of which 11 have been completed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HOURS AFTER performing the last rites of his mother in Gandhinagar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express \u2014 the first Vande Bharat Express in West Bengal and the seventh in the country \u2014 via video link on Friday. Addressing the event, Modi apologised for not being physically present. \u201cToday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89600,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89598\/revisions\/89600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}